The sliding drawers of a cabinet like those which are used for the storage of tools and mechanical parts may undesirably open due to vibrations for example when the cabinet is placed in a truck or when it is provided with wheels. The undesired opening of the drawers may be prevented when they are provided with key locks, which is often the case. However, all the drawers must be locked and eventually unlocked each time the cabinet is moved, without mentioning the need of having the required key(s).
It is thus desirable to provide some kind of latching devices which would prevent the undesired opening of the drawers without necessarily locking them. There are certain latching devices designed for this purpose.
For example, known in the art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,012 (Dünner) which shows a latching device having a button at the front of the drawer which actuates a cam at the rear of the drawer. The major drawback of this type of mechanism is that two hands must generally be used to open the drawer, one for operating the button and one for pulling the drawer's handle.
Other latching devices have a button integrated at one end of the drawer's handle. The mechanism can be operated with a single hand but the button is not accessible over the whole length of the handle.
Also known in the art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,139 (Slivon et al.), which describes a latching device having a drawer pull at the front of the drawer. The pull has a bottom channel in which a latch bar slides as it is finger driven in the proper direction to unlatch the drawer and is urged back into a latching position by a spring as soon as the user releases the latch bar.
Also known in the art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,191 (Slivon), which describes a latching device in the form of a hook mounted near an end of the drawer's handle and engaging with a keeper structure in one side of the cabinet by downward swivelling caused by a spring.
Known in the art are U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,235 (Mehmen), U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,478 (Yemini), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,451 (Harmony) which all show latching devices similarly operating based on a hooking element projecting inside the drawer and releasably engaging with a complementary hooking structure over the drawer inside the cabinet.
Other examples of latching devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,436(Anderson), U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,311 (Kadlecek et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,902 (Huebschen et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,044 (Trewhella, Jr et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,649 (Hinrichs).
However, all of the above devices have some drawbacks, for example: it cannot be operated with a single hand and if so, it is not ambidextrous; it cannot be operated along the full width of the drawer; its operation is not user-friendly or transparent for the user; it interferes with the drawer's slides; its operation depends on the user action on the handle; etc.